Deal alert: Buy a year of Xbox Music and get a free Lumia 520 or Lumia 521 (US only)

This deal is pretty freaking good deal. Head to the Microsoft Store and you’re going to say big on a new Windows Phone and Xbox Music. This deal is seriously too good to pass up. Details below on how you’re getting a new Windows Phone and Xbox Music for a year.

Head to the Microsoft Store website and you’re going to get either a Nokia Lumia 520 or Lumia 520 and a year subscription to Xbox Music for less than a Benjamin. The Lumia 520 for AT&T and the Lumia 521 for T-Mobile are both off-contract devices that go for $99 on the Microsoft Store Website. A year pass for Xbox Music goes for $99.90. Which means if you bought both individually you’d spend over $200.

Or you could go to the Microsoft Store website and buy the Xbox Music Pass Bundle which puts the phone together with Xbox Music. You’ll select either the Lumia 520 or Lumia 521 and get a 12-month Xbox Music Pass for just $99.90. It’s a pretty good deal if you’re already an Xbox Music subscriber and want to take on some more time to your subscription and get a free phone out of the deal.

There’s also some savings on headphones from Skullcandy that are optionally part of the Xbox Music Pass Bundle, but you don’t need to buy them to get the deal.

Anyone thinking of taking advantage of the deal? The Lumia 520 and Lumia 521 make great music devices with their micro SD card support.

My wife uses her 520 as her main phone. It is an absolutely amazing phone for $50 that I purchased it for. My daughter wants a MP3 player, so I can get this deal for her and get the MP3 player for free. Go Nokia! You rocked back when you were Nokia :)

It does not work with CDMA carriers for voice or almost any data. The Verizon branded phones (Lumia 928, 822, etc.) work on ATT and (to some degree) T-Mobile because the radios for both CDMA and GSM are built in (for global customers). ATT, T-Mobile, and others. Don't waste money including CDMA because its not the global standard and the bands needed would be specific to Verizon or Sprint. Its more advantageous for Verizon to include GSM with CDMA so its customers can work abroad where ATT and T-Mobile have no advantage to have their phones work on VZW or Sprint (source: I used to work for VZW tech for 5 years. Quit 5 months ago)

In their defense, they do have a global presence, with local offices and local marketing. So if we don't see good deals like this, blame your local MSFT too as there's nothing stopping them from running their own promos..

Do they? Please, tell where are the Microsoft Stores in Europe? Also, tell me, where are the Microsoft promotions in Europe? Microsoft has an online store for every European country. Now tell me, why doesn't any of them have, for example, the Surface Pro 129GB for sale for 499 like the American Microsoft Store? Exactly. Because only the US gets these sales and promotions.

Says the guy that doesn't understand how a global business operates. Helpful hint: this offer is being done by the Microsoft Store. The Microsoft Store is a regional entity, only in the US. They cannot dictate what retail partners in other countries do. They should not dictate what retail partners in other countries do. The executive chains are entirely different and likely don't even meet until Ballmer, so no one is capable of dictating this to anyone else.

If you're so smart, then you should know that marketing strategies aren't decided by the Microsoft Stores but by Microsoft's retail department. As such, no Microsoft Store can run any promotion without the concent and approval of Microsoft. Therefore, if Microsoft's retail division only allows and incentives promotions in the US, they fail as a "global business".

Also, the Microsoft Store is NOT a regional entity. Only the physical stores are. Microsoft has online stores in almost every country they're in. However, only the US gets promotions. So no. It's not because they are separate. It's because Microsoft privileges the US market. Do your homework next time, kid.

However you are missing a bigger bit of information. In the EU for example, it is ILLEGAL in several countries to offer SALES regionally. You need to contact YOUR Microsoft retail division, and you should also pay attention to the laws in your OWN country or associated country your Microsoft retail division is operating.

Blaming Microsoft because some countries forbid sales, can't adjust prices because of import tarrifs, and other regional restrictions is just IGNORANCE.

They're trying to grow the install base within the U.S. They're not giving them away out of charity. The goal is to get people in the US to give WP a try. Why would they give phones away in other markets where their platform is already performing fairly well?

Because they should keep customers that gave them a chance without bribes, happy? It's not enough to gain a customer. It's crucial to keep it. A happy customer gives good word-of-mouth about products. Friends talk to friends.
With Microsoft always nourishing their American customers and ignoring other markets on purpose, those customers are more likely to go somewhere else next time.

Yup. And Amazon doens't offer half as many goods in Canada, only recently introduced Prime, etc.

Hey, Nintendo fans in Japan get different games and colors!
Hey, BMW fans in Europe get different models!
Hey, KitKat fans in China get different flavors!

Sorry, companies are almost entirely different in different regions. They can't coordinate the same promotions across the globe. Even if they could, it makes little sense because different regions have consumers with different interests and subsidiaries with different needs.

How come I can't get durian flavored Oreos? How come I can't get a tour of the Mercedes factory and see my car being built? How come my Trophy didn't come with an Xbox?

My point clearly went over you're head so let me explain to you. I understand full well that promotions, products, services ect cannot be identical across regions. As i said before the average consumer doesn't give a crap about that noise. It's not about getting the exact same things. It's a matter of perception. If people feel marginalized it is bad for MSFT. I'm not going to go off and blame MSFT Canada. I can honestly say that this business has somewhat soured my feelings towards MSFT.

You're posts on this thread seem to be pretty hostile and opinionated. Dial it back k bud.

Ffs! You need to sort out your issues. Now you are just coming across totally childish. USA is a HUGE market for any mobile OS. It is also Microsoft's home. MSFT isn't doing well since last two quarter reports. Any sane businessman will want to throw even a kitchen sink at the biggest market available. Microsoft is trying to attract home customers to trust in the brand so no it isn't screwing anyone but your silly thoughts.

Really? Well perhaps the rest of the World should start buying products to someone else. Let Microsoft sell only in the US...if 'muricans bite into their strategy.

The question is very simple: you can't constantly benefit consumers of one market over the others. Microsoft treats US consumers as first class consumers and everyone else as second class. You know what happens when consumers start to feel like they're second class? They move to other companies.

Microsoft can try to attract consumers in its home country. But they should not treat consumers abroad as second class. Specially when those are way more open to give them a try. Yet, they do.

Go find out the legal restrictions in your region of why Microsoft might not be allowed to offer a sale through their division that operates. I have some experience in Europe, and know of a couple of prominent countries like France and Belgium that this type of deal would be illegal.

The sales are ALSO being subsidized by ATT & TMobile 'prepaid' plans, as these phones are designs for these offerings. Even if local carriers would agree in your market, this adds additional restrictions of bundling and dumping and how the taxes are handled that would be a logistical nightmare.

I'm leaving the old $15/month plan with this deal. I've been meaning to switch, and going from $180/yr to $100/yr is great, plus I get another 521 to give to my mother-in-law and start converting her. I've probably used no more than 150 of my song credits since I first signed up back in 2007/8 (whenever woot had the brownie Zune 30). Since they never rolled over, I've been throwing money away. =/

Ha! I got Zune from Groupon back then too! I might go right along with you and dump the $15/month plan. It's for 10 songs, and you're really paying for 5 of those anyway with the extra $5 over the $10 plan. I can put that $5 in my Microsoft Account and use it for apps, songs and videos.

When I got my 520 a while back, I also purchased a 32GB micro-SD card. You can switch setting to store media on it, and when you download tunes from XBOX Music offline it saves there. Basically have 32GB dedicated almost entirely to music. Makes a great mp3 player this way. Use it almost every day as such.

As someone with a 928(no micro-SD card support) and a large library of music this deal is really intriguing. To those who have it, how is Xbox Music as a service? From the little I researched it's pretty much Microsoft's version of Spotify.

I love having Xbox Music service. My whole family can use my account because it can be used on four devices at the same time. I often use it in conjunction with Pandora. When I here something I like on Pandora, I simply make a few clicks and I'm downloading that song for offline listening later in Xbox Music for free (with the Xbox Music subscription). The only albums that I've looked for that they don't have are the ones from the Beatles, but I have most of those anyway.

Does AT&T or T-Mobile offer a way to use these for off-contract/pay as you go tethering? I have a 920 grandfathered on ATT and would just be interested a way to occasionally tether a laptop- would be nice to just use a 520/521 instead of buying a dedicated mifi device.

I was actually going to ask something very similar. How would the data/phone bills work with an off-contract phone such as the 520? Would i still pay for data, because i'm assuming off-contraxt means only for the phone, correct? I never understood this, but i think thats what it is, no?

well, I have a 521 off tmobile, it's an off contract, i pay 50 a month for it, i get 500 megs of 4g and unlimited 3g

you could eithe rpay with a credit card every month, ot go to a store and buy as refill card, i havent used it much, but the 521 does support tethering, so what you wanna do should work, I'm not sure if it would be ideal

also, get the 521, the 520 cant do 4g, only 3g, and at&t's off contract data plans are horrible

Edit: i read over the comment again and think i read it wrong, if your wondering how you would activate it, basically you go to a store, but a $50 tmobile card(this is asusming you go with the 521.. its what i have so the only one i know for sure how it works) and you go online, enter stuff like your phones IEMI code, choose plan and pay etc, then it enables, it can be done online or by phone, i only do it online though.

let me know if this wall helps, and feel free to ask any other questions

I used my 520 on contract and used internet sharing I don't see why it wouldn't be possible but im not sure what kind of data plans you'll get on At&t pay as you go Tmobile might be better as far as price but probably not in service

This is a GREAT deal... to think I just bought a stupid iPod touch the other day so I could use my Nike + FuelBand... the dumb iPod was $220 for an 8GB model with no camera. This is a steal! The 520 is easily as good as an iPod touch (some of the XBOX Game on WP are really great) and having the unlimited Music pass for a year is awesome.

Anyone thinking about getting a music pass should get this deal... it is really worth it just for the music pass...

Yeah... I know... but i actually wanted to get the 5th Gen so it was the same size as the iPhone 5... as a previous iPhone user before getting a 920 and then 1020 I was a little excited to be able to get access to some of those apps I have been missing out on... but honestly... I dont use it for ANYTHING but the Nike plus stuff... WP really is good enough when it comes to apps... now mind you I am not a big social network guy... if Nike + was on WP i would never need to have an iPod... but... from what I hear they wont even put that Fuel Band app on Android.

Does the $99.90 Xbox music price include any songs you download and keep? Or is there an additional cost for downloading and owning music? If the former, is there a limit on how many songs you can download?

As others have said, unlimited streaming and offline downloading (on compatible devices). But once the subscription ends, the music won't work anymore.

However, with the average song being priced at $0.99, you merely need to download 100 songs to make this a worthwhile deal. Pretty easy for even a casual music listener (Like me) when given an entire year.

This is also great. My little sister got an iPhone 5C for Christmas (the internal pain I feel for such an abomination being allowed in our homestead). Well, I've always hated iTunes, but I still have to deal with it so I can manage music for her. It's a pain, but once the code is delievered: I'll just log in, and let her stream any song to her heart's content.

There are a few limits, however. Only one device can be streaming music at a time, the service can only be logged into on (I believe) up to 5 devices. Also, not all devices are compatible with downloading music offline (like iOS and Android, but it's "coming soon"). So be wary of these limitations before you consider buying.

Nonetheless, still a great bargin. I personally see it as, "Sweet, I'm getting a Lumia 520 to play with, with free music on the side." :)

I have the same question. I live in Canada, but this sounds like a great deal to buy the music pass and get a music player for free. So, firstly would a music pass be locked to the US only, or could it be used in Canada? Also, would an AT&T phone without a SIM work just fine as an MP3 player using only the WIFI in my house for a connection?

This seems like too good a deal to spend over $200 in Canada when I could spend half that.

this is completely wrong. I have the 521 and it's not on any network. It's completely used as a portable computer/GPS/MP3 player. I have full turn-by-turn offline map navigation. As long as it's in the database, it will map there. if it's not in the database and you don't have a data connection, you need a wifi connection to find it through the Internet.

Either your Nokia drive software is not uptodate or you did not install the Microsoft update the one you get when you register as a app developer and install their app. I did these two on the same day and lost the ability to use my 520 as a GPS without a SIM.

I don't know about the 520, but the 521 comes with a T-Mobile SIM card. My 521 is not currently connected to any cellular plan. It's 100% offline (well, except for WiFi, of course). I do have my SIM card plugged in even though I don't have T-Mobile service.

100% full use of GPS and the rest of the phone features (not including any cellular features of course).

In terms of music, the SIM card is not involved at all. You use the WiFi connection to connect to Xbox Music for streaming. But you also have the option to download almost any song for offline playback.

Just continue using your current plan (assuming you like it). Deals on the Lumia 520 and 521 are VERY easy to find. It can often be had easily for $70. And if you're willing to wait for a deal (which is every few weeks in the US), you can even score it for a mere $60 or even $50.

So assuming you like your current music plan, fret not, you can still nab a cheap 520/521 (in the US, at least). ;)

In a nutshell, on the 10gb or larger data buckets, the price per phone drops to $15/phone/mo for off-contract and ATT Next phones (and existing on-contract phones until you upgrade, for some strange reason). If, at your next upgrade, you get another 2-yr contract phone instead of off-contract or ATT Next, the phone price per month goes back up to $40/mo. You then pay $25/mo more per month to be on-contract.

It's funny how WP is at 10% in Europe (because here the people buy Nokia) and of course Microsoft gives the best deals to Us where they have maybe 3%
. Keeping the clients Microsoft way.. Really curious too see if they will still maintain the position in Europe in the next year if they will continue with these policies..

I had recently purchased a Lumia 510, with the hopes of using it as an mp3 player using Xbox Music. I bought
a 64 Gb card that I was going to download music through the subscription service. Unfortunately, this didn't work out as planned. From tests I ran and a subsequent call to Microsoft, I found that the downloaded subscription music is not stored on individual files that can be placed on the 64 Gb card. Instead, as I downloaded subscription music, the Apps folder size kept increasing. It looks as though it's stored as data for the apps on the device itself rather than in the music folder.

Since you cannot add the app to the SD card, I was limited to the 8 Gb on the device itself, which would not hold much of the music I wanted to store. I ended up returning the phone. Not to deter anyone from this deal (I've been an Xbox music subscriber for years), but if you plan on storing downloaded subscription music, you won't have much space to work with.

If someone knows a way to make this work, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

Wow, thanks for the tidbit. That changes my game plan completely (I was just about to do thte same thing). All I want is a damn mp3 player which is compatable with xbox music that I can take running. Is that so hard.....MICROSOFT!!!!

What they need to do is increase the number of devices Xbox music can be used on. SurfaceRt, surfacePro, Nokia 1020, Nokia 1520 and a Nokia 2520. So to get a 520 won't work. I'm at my limit. Bests audio can be played on 10 devices.

Maybe they'll listen to consumer feedback and change their minds. They already made lots of chages with Xbone policy, and they now allow the same MS account to be used on up to 81 Windows 8.1 devices. :)

Damn, even though I live in the US and plan on taking this up, even I am shaking my finger at Microsoft for making this US only... How unfortunate our international friends have to miss out on such a great offer!

In a month or two Microsoft and Nokia will announce WP 8.1 and will have new high and low end these 521 will drop to $50. Would be worth it 6 months ago but now they are trying to get rid of it and get more people in the Xbox echo system.

off topic : i have lumia 520- amber. i live in india. i think lumia black just rolled on 29 jan. bt my phone still displays ur phone is upto date. my all core apps are upto date. i m on wifi network. i did hard reset again updated core apps bt still same problem. wat shud i do? nokia care is also helpless.... plzz help me...

Seriously. Just get the market share Microsoft. Lose a little money retaining the customer before you lose the customers to competitors. But these hardware deals they are coming out with are fantastic.

I'm waiting on my federal tax return before I jump on a Surface purchase. The sale a week or two ago was amazing but I am holding out for the Pro. Not sure if the original Pro is good enough(battery) but the markdown was rather large so I think if I can fins it I might splurge.